Acceleration Frontier vs Tacoma

Magazine time are notoriously unreliable. However, looking at ALL of them and coming up with an average, you can clearly see that the Tacoma spanks the Frontier like a red headed stepchild.

 

Being a Tacoma forum, opinions will of course be biased however I felt this was well said.

Hardbody's were tough as nails and no, the Frontier is definately not the same truck. Its bigger, heavier, more complicated, etc. Good way to sum it up is "Americanized". Its build quality has suffered and they do have their quirks.

I bought mine brand new only because of the price. I wasnt super excited about the truck, but it was pretty good. Same with the Tacoma, I drove 3 and liked them, but was in the same boat as the Frontier. I didnt think the Tacoma was ugly, but some of the styling was questionable (couldnt get over the damn arched wheelwells, tires are round and I feel wheelwells would be the same). Other than that they looked fine, it certainanly wasnt a dramatic gut wrenching feeling that made me want to vomit when I saw one...)

In the end price was the deciding factor. With Nissan's rebates and price dikering the Frontier was $5k cheaper. Thats a good chunk of change especially if you factor in interest on top of it.

 

my buddy has a frontier quad cab with the bully dog programmer, intake and exhaust. according to both of our quater mile times i've ranged from a 15.1 to a 15.3 in my completely STOCK tacoma and he's running 15.6 to 15.8 depending on temperature....thats a big difference i personally think the yota is faster but he is also four wheel drive and im two wheel drive. seems like when we run all our trucks on warm days they stick but as soon as it gets cool or cold outside i couldnt get a single one of our trucks to hook off the line....and i dont know if anyone has raced any other trucks but i dont care what shape, form, body style, year chevrolet ford or dodge it is but our trucks will outrun them BAD! the only ones i havnt run is a titan and a tundra but ive raced EVERYTHING else. and we cant beat a ford lightning obviously or a viper v10 truck but hey i enjoy wearing all my friends out in their f150s and 1500s...and it takes a programmer at bare minimum 90hp tune on a diesel to beat our trucks

 

my taco vs the wifes 4.0 pathfinder auto. the path is really low geared in first and second. takes off quick then falls on its face. i'll take her in a short run. cource she has allot more weight to drag around and i don't hammer my truck off the line.

 

plus the older ones spark plugs were only held in with 4 threads so they broke off whenever you went to change them more often than not

 

HMMM... My Taco puts out 265hp stock. 2005, auto, 4x4, db, sport. I eat those Fronts all day around here. Kinda funny. Even the supercharged ones. BLAHH!! BORING!!!

 

the 3.3 s/ced ones sucked .... i doubt youre eating the new ones up

 

OHHH YEAH!!!

 

The mags tend to test the LE versions with the taller gearing. Unlike the Taco, the Fronty gears different models differently. But the Fronty weighs more; Bigger Frame, Beefier Trans, MUCH Beefier rear diff..... Which is more important, long term frame life, (which is a running Tacoma Joke, BTW), or a slight acceleration difference. How bout having a rock solid rear diff? Or slightly quicker acceleration. Really.....

 

I've wondered whether the 236 rated from Toyota is accurate... it truly didn't seem very high for 4.1L, DOHC, VVT engine with 10:1 compression ratio.

If you remember, a while back Toyota (in addition to many others) got a corporate hand slap for OVER-rating HP in published figures. They went to SAE ratings only and I imagine they are conservative on top of that.

 

ill tell you my nismo was much faster and had better throttle response than my taco....just my .02 cents
i had a nismo for 3 years......the motor blew "burning 2 quarts a week" at 30k but oh well.....overall i liked my nissan boxed frame.sturdy tailgate "could drive a tractor on that bitch" not to mention a mans bed rail and floor track system......"sweet also beffie"....also had the outdoor light for bed of truck in third brake light......
better desinged beer holders " i mean drink holders".....also had temp display in mirror "so u didnt have to take your eyes off the road".......had mpg, dte, ect all built in...... im sure im forgetting a few more things i liked about my nismo
oh yea same exact spare rim and tire.......

 

Well, if you want to keep your Wins, then I wouldn't race either of these two lol. Unless you are racing in snow against a 2wd tundra, then you don't stand a chance. I went from a tacoma to the tundra, and no doubt the tundra is way quicker. Tundras are supposed to go mid 14s stock. even if they run a full second slow, they will still pull a quicker time than your 16s.

Also, the new GM and Ford 6+ liter engines are supposed to be quicker than the tundras.

 

The threads weren't the problem...it was the 2 piece design of the plug. If you didn't remove them just right, the 2 halves would separate and leave half of the plug in place. But that's all been fixed as of 2005 or 2006 I think.

 

i've already spanked a vortec max chevrolet....ALL of my friends drive chevy's most of them duramaxs running 13.8s.... my girlfriends cousin is on youtube with his twin turbo duramax running 11.1 but he just tore that truck apart to rebuild it a second time around...and when it gets hot ill post a video or i can post the run we did a couple of weeks ago in an 03 lb7 crossed the 1/4 mile at 55 mph reading 120 on the dash! they wont hook when its cold outside....all the older guys we go to the track with were kind of pissed no one likes leaving rubber down the track or peeling any "stickiness" up.....ha but yeah the new 6.2 is finally supposed to outrun the quarter mile time of a tacoma but the one video on youtube that i have seen it lost to a tacoma at the track....guy probably couldnt drive. i like the frontiers....i just love my tacoma too much and i feel the quality of my truck is alot better than my friends frontier but hey to each his own.

 

My 96 Taco 4cyl 5speed will make a 4.0 Frontier look like a fool. How much money you want to lose? My supervisor in the Air Force had a Dakota R/T with a 360. He was always telling me how there is no way my truck was stock. lol

 

yalls trucks are only rated at 236hp??

then why is my 05 rated at 245?

 

I drove both before buying a Tacoma. 0~60 wasn't my first priority but didn't notice any difference on the test drives.